1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a high linear density tunnel junction read head with in-stack longitudinal bias stack (LBS) and, more particularly, to such a read head wherein the gap at an air bearing surface, where the flux guide is located, is smaller than the gap of a tunnel junction read head which is recessed from the ABS.
2. Description of the Related Art
The heart of a computer is a magnetic disk drive which includes a rotating magnetic disk, a slider that has read and write heads, a suspension arm above the rotating disk and an actuator arm that swings the suspension arm to place the read and write heads over selected circular tracks on the rotating disk. The suspension arm biases the slider into contact with the surface of the disk when the disk is not rotating but, when the disk rotates, air is swirled by the rotating disk adjacent an air bearing surface (ABS) of the slider causing the slider to ride on an air bearing a slight distance from the surface of the rotating disk. When the slider rides on the air bearing the write and read heads are employed for writing magnetic impressions to and reading magnetic field signals from the rotating disk. The read and write heads are connected to processing circuitry that operates according to a computer program to implement the writing and reading functions.
An exemplary high performance read head employs a tunnel junction sensor for sensing the magnetic field signals from the rotating magnetic disk. The sensor includes a tunneling barrier layer sandwiched between a ferromagnetic pinned layer and a ferromagnetic free layer. An antiferromagnetic pinning layer interfaces the pinned layer for pinning the magnetic moment of the pinned layer 90° to an air bearing surface (ABS) wherein the ABS is an exposed surface of the sensor that faces the rotating disk. The tunnel junction sensor is located between ferromagnetic first and second shield layers. First and second leads, which may be the first and second shield layers, are connected to the tunnel junction sensor for conducting a tunneling current therethrough. The tunneling current is conducted perpendicular to the major thin film planes (CPP) of the sensor as contrasted to a spin valve sensor where a sense current is typically conducted in (parallel to) the major thin film planes (CIP) of the spin valve sensor. However, a spin valve sensor can be arranged so that the current is conducted perpendicular to the plane. Although the description below pertains to a tunnel junction sensor, the invention can also be employed with CPP spin valve sensors. A magnetic moment of the free layer is free to rotate upwardly and downwardly with respect to the ABS from a quiescent or zero bias point position in response to positive and negative magnetic field signals from the rotating magnetic disk. The quiescent position of the magnetic moment of the free layer, which is parallel to the ABS, is when the bias current is conducted through the sensor without magnetic field signals from the rotating magnetic disk. The sensitivity of the tunnel junction sensor is quantified as magnetoresistive coefficient dR/R where dR is the change in resistance of the tunnel junction sensor from minimum resistance to maximum resistance and R is the resistance of the tunnel junction sensor at minimum resistance.
In the prior art, the first and second shield layers or first and second lead layers may engage the bottom and the top respectively of the tunnel junction sensor so that the first and second shield layers or the first and second lead layers conduct the bias current through the tunnel junction sensor perpendicular to the major planes of the layers of the tunnel junction sensor. The tunnel junction sensor has first and second side surfaces which are normal to the ABS. First and second hard bias layers abut the first and second side surfaces respectively of the tunnel junction sensor for longitudinally biasing the magnetic domains of the free layer. This longitudinal biasing stabilizes the free layer and maintains the magnetic moment of the free layer parallel to the ABS when the read head is in the quiescent condition.
Except for the first and second shield layers, the flux guide is typically constructed separately from the tunnel junction sensor in order to satisfy the location of the flux conducting layer and one or more insulation layers. Typically, the first and second shield layers of the flux guide sensor are extensions of the first and second shield layers for the tunnel junction sensor. Accordingly, the first and second shield layers for the flux guide sensor at the ABS typically have the same gap therebetween as the first and second shield layers at the tunnel junction sensor. This means that the gap between the first and second shield layers at the ABS, and therefore the linear density of the read head, is controlled by the sensor stack which includes all of the aforementioned layers as well as a cap layer and first and second lead layers if they are employed with the sensor. With the demand for high linear density read heads, this is a serious design restriction. It should be understood that an increase in the linear density of the read head means that more bits per inch can be read by the read head along the circular track of the magnetic disk which permits an increase in the storage density of a magnetic disk drive.